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REPRINTED FROM 

The Catholic World Magazine, 

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THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" AGAIN 

DISCUSSED. 

BY REV. P. R. McDEVITT {Superint evident of Pai-fsh Schools in Philadelphia). 

The following words are taken from an editorial in the 
New York Tribune^ and are quoted here because they are in- 
dicative of a growing tendency to treat the question of educa- 
tional methods in a broad spirit of liberality : 

" Mr. Miles O'Brien, the president of the3oard of Education, New York 
City, has put forward and is advocating with his usual earnestness a plan for 
bringing practically all the schools of the city — save the select private and 
boarding schools — under municipal control as a part of the public-school sys- 
tem. There are now many schools maintained by charitable organizations and 
churches which are working on lines largely parallel with those of the common 
schools. Som€ of them receive aid from the public funds and are subject to a 
measure of public supervision, while others are entirely independent thereof. 
Mr. O'Brien's proposal was at first understood to apply only to the former class, 
but now appears to apply equally to the latter. He would have the city pur- 
chase at a fair price such of the private school buildings as it could advanta- 
geously utilize, and even retain the teachers, or such of them as could pass the 
necessary examinations, and would thus transform private into public schools 
with no change in plant and little or none in personal organization. 

" Mr. O'Brien is an intelligent and ambitious friend of the public school, 
who wants to make New York's school system the best in the world. He has 
done much good work, and is doubtless entirely sincere in his belief in the prac- 
ticality and beneficence of the great change he is now advocating. More than 
that, we may say that in principle his plan is to be commended and its execu- 
tion is to be desired." 

Then the editorial continues by suggesting some difticulties 
which are after all not of an insurmountable nature. There is 
so much good will indicated in the statements quoted that it 
should not be difficult to find a way of solving the problem. 

Tn the Report for 1899-19CX) of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, Hon. W. T. Harris, the following interesting and valua- 
ble statistics are given. There are in the 



The ''Grievous School Question.'' 



Elementary Schools, 
Secondary Schools, . 
Universities and Colleges, 
Professional Schools, . 
Normal Schools, . . 



Public. 


Private. 


14,662,488 


1,193.882 pupils. 


488,549 


166,678 


30,050 


73,201 


8,540 


46,594 


. 44 808 


23 572 



15234435 1.503927 



Enrollment in Special Schools. 



City Evening Schools, 


185.000 


Easiness Schools, .... 


70.686 


Indian Schools 


23,500 


Schools for Defectives, . 


23.69 1 


Reform Schools, .... 


24,925 


Orphan Asylums and other Benevo- 




lent Institutions, 


14,000 


Schools in Alaska, .... 


1.369 


Kindergartens, .... 


93.737 


Miscellaneous, 


50 000 



486,908 

Summarizing, then, we find total enrollment was 17,225 270, 
distributed as follows : 

In Public Institutions, . . 15,234,435 
In Private Institutions, . . 1,503 927 
In Special Schools, . . 486,908 

Under the term "Common Schools" the Report includes 
public schools of elementary and secondary grades ; the former 
including all pupils in the first eight years of the course of 
study, and the latter the pupils of the next four years of the 
course usually conducted in high-schools or academies. 

In educating the vast number that attend the " Common 
Schools" (15,151,037), 415660 teachers were employed, and to 
meet the expenses of these schools the sum of $204^01 7,6 12 was 



The ''Grievous School Question:' 3 

raised; the average expenditure for each child being $1899. 
This enormous outlay, as well as the vast number of pupils 
enrolled, clearly demonstrate the high place that popular edu- 
cation holds in the estimation of the American people ; this 
fact is emphasized when we compare with it the correspond- 
ing data shown by other countries. 

THE CATHOLIC-AMERICAN IS NO LAGGARD. 

That the Catholic-American is no laggard in this great edu- 
cational work is proved by statistics of our Catholic educa- 
tional institutions during the year 1899-1900, which give 3.812 
parish schools with an enrollment of 903,980 pupils, 183 col- 
leges for boys, and 617 academies for girls; the enrollment in 
the latter not being given. 

It is safe, then, to say that nearly 1,000000 pupils of all 
grades are being educated under distinctly Catholic influences. 

While, therefore, other private educational institutions out- 
side of the Catholic Church are important in number, char- 
acter, and enrollment of pupils, it is clear that the Catholic 
schools contain double the number that are being educated in 
all the other schools not of distinctly public character. 

In the education of the youth of our country, then, we find 
two clearly defined agencies working side by side : one, the 
creation of the state ; the other, the offspring of private en- 
terprise. The state supports hers from a revenue obtained by 
the taxation of all classes without exception ; the other is 
maintained by the generosity of private individuals, and re- 
ceives no financial aid, and very little professional recognition, 
from state authority. 

The dominating thought and purpose of both agencies are 
the same— the formation and development of character, and 
the instilling of those principles which beget the highest ideal 
of true womanhood and manhood. Though this high end is 
the aim of all educators, there is some variance of opinion as 
to the means best suited to accomplish the end. 

The vast majority seem to believe that that end can, under 



4 The ''Grievous School Question:' 

existing circumstances, be best attained by the plan of educa- 
tion offered to all children in the common or state schools, 
while others find in that same plan a lack of what to them is 
essential in the development of a human being, namely, the 
religious instruction so wholly ignored in the public-school 
system. This difference of opinion accounts for the existence 
of both public and private schools. A few private institutions 
of learning owe their existence to the desire of some parents 
for social distinction, and their disinclination to allow their 
children to frequent schools wherein the lines of social caste 
lose effect ; these schools differ from the public schools only 
in their eJcclusiveness. 

The majority, therefore, of private schools exist because 
conscientious and God-fearing parents recognize the necessity 
of daily religious instruction ; and, as a result, parish schools 
are not merely private but distinctly Catholic, and the differ- 
ence between them and the state school consists in the presence 
or absence of a religious atmosphere. 

DIFFERENT VIEW-POINTS OF EDUCATORS. 

All educators who believe in Christianity agree that re- 
ligion and morality must have a share in the education of 
youth ; they differ, however, as to the manner and time and 
place in which religion and morality are to be taught. 

Education in its true and complete acceptance is the bring- 
ing out of all the powers of man. It means the training of 
the heart, the cultivation of the mind, and the development 
of the physical powers. A system of education which ignores 
any of these is defective, and becomes disastrous in propor- 
tion to the dignity and relative importance of the part that is 
neglected. I take it that, in the main, non-Catholics hold that 
moral training should be a part of the daily curriculum. Thus, 
in the Boston course of study for the high-school we read : 
" In giving instruction in morals and manners, teachers will at 
all times exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds 
of youth the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred re- 



The ''Grievous School Question.'' 5 

gard to truth ; love of their country, humanity, and universal 
benevolence; sobriety, industry, and frugality; chastity, mode- 
ration, and temperance." This moral instruction, however, it 
is declared, shall have no trace or shadow of sectarian or 
doctrinal teaching, for in the course of study for primary 
schools of the same city it is said: "In giving this instruc- 
tion teachers should keep strictly within the bounds of man- 
ners and morals, and thus avoid all occasion for treating of 
or alluding to sectarian subjects." 

Again, I say, it is evident all agree as to the necessity of 
moral and religious teaching ; there is no agreement as to the 
manner, places, and times wherein it is to be given. Outside of 
the Catholic Church it is almost universally maintained that, 
though morality may be inculcated in the school-room, all religious 
teaching is to be relegated to the church and the family circle- 

THE CATHOLIC IDEA OF EDUCATION. 

Catholics hold that as ever and always the child's soul and 
his duties to God are the highest and greatest, so there is no 
place, time, or method from which the teaching of morals and 
religion may be eliminated. They- hold that as the know^ledge 
of the relations of the creature to his Creator is the most 
sacred and essential of all subjects, the most imperative of all 
obligations, these relations shall receive at least as much atten- 
tion as is given to any secular branch ; that as a child cannot 
become proficient in reading, writing, or arithmetic without 
daily instruction therein, so neither can he acquire the neces- 
sary knowledge of God, his laws, his rewards and punishments, 
without the daily presentation of these truths. Nor do they 
believe that morality and religion are separable ; that men 
will revere the law, if they ignore the law-giver. Now, since 
morality has Divine sanction, to attempt to teach its princi- 
ples without reference to the Divinity is to ignore the law- 
giver; yet just as surely as you speak of the Law-giver, so 
surely do you trench on the ground of doctrinal teaching. 
But even should any one hold that religion and morality are 



6 The ''Grievous School Question" 

separable, the Catholic Church, with her ages of experience, 
with her realization that religion and morality must be united ; 
and kno^^ing from the same experience that the instruction 
given her children at church and at home is inadequate for 
the requisite religious training of the child, has created a sys- 
tem of schools wherein religious, moral, and secular training 
shall go hand-in-hand for the perfecting of the whole human 
being. As says one of the ablest Catholic educators : 

'* However, we do not hold that religion can be imparted 
as is the knowledge of history or grammar; the repetition of 
the catechism or the reading of the Gospel is not religion. 
Religion is something more subtle, more intimate, more all- 
pervading ; it speaks to the heart and the head ; it is an ever- 
living presence in the school-room ; it is reflected from the 
pages of our reading books. It is nourished by the prayers 
with which our daily exercises are opened and closed ; it is 
brought in to control the affections, to keep watch over the 
imagination ; it forbids to the mind any but useful, holy, and 
innocent thoughts ; it enables the soul to resist temptation, it 
guides the conscience, inspires horror for sin and love of vir- 
tue. It must be an essential element of our lives, the very 
atmosphere of our breathing, the soul of every action. 

" This is religion as the Catholic Church understands it, 
and this is why she seeks to foster the religious spirit in every 
soul confided to her, at all times, under all circumstances, 
without rest, without break, from the cradle to the grave " 
[Brother Asarias). 

In the maintaining of her parish school the Catholic Church 
not only contends for the union of secular learning and re- 
ligious training, but, furthermore, in the very contention, em- 
phasizes the conscientious duty of Catholic parents to thus 
educate their offspring. 

DANGERS OF STATE PATERNALISM. 

There is undoubtedly at the present time a more than mere 
tendency towards state " paternalism." It is a fact, however 



The " Grievous School Question.'' 7 

much it may be deplored, that many parents are only too 
willing to relegate to the state the rights, duties, and respon- 
sibilities that devolve on them in this matter of education. 

The result of this shirking of duty on one side, and the 
assumption of it on the other, must, ultimately, be harmful to 
both. The family is the basal unit of the state ; any weak- 
ness, much more any unsoundness, in the foundation or in any 
of the component parts imperils the whole of the edifice. 

If the parent does not fulfil his duty — far worse if he de- 
liberately ignores it — the resultant moral and civic weakness 
must show itself in the character and stability of the state. 

Let me not be misunderstood on this point. I would not 
derogate one iota from the right of the state to look after the 
well-being of its citizens. But this right has its legitimate 
limits ; neither do I admit the state's right of absolute control 
of the character of the education to be imparted to a pupil, 
any more than I would accord it the privilege of determining 
that pupil's religion. 

The state surely may, and should, insist that her citizens 
should be fitted for the discharge of their duties to the com- 
monwealth. If parents fail in their duty to their children, let 
the state step in and become father and mother to the outcast 
and neglected ones ; but, in the name of natural right, let us 
remember that the state is not the 7iatural but only a foster 
parent, and that the first duty and privilege as regards the 
child belongs to its parent by nature. 

CHURCH STANDS FOR LAW AND ORDER. 

More firmly than any other teaching body, the church has 
ever stood for law and order. Her enemies make it a reproach 
that her conservatism at times stifles the aspirations of an op- 
pressed people for natural freedom. But, guided by the Holy 
Spirit, and rich with the experience of nineteen hundred years 
among the nations of the earth, she insists that her children 
shall respect and obey all civil power, because all authority 
comes from God. 



8 The " Grievous School Question" 

She may both see and feel the tyranny and oppression that, 
are weighing down the people, but she knows that sometimes 
it is better to bear the ills we have than to attempt to escape 
to others we know not of. 

The simple fact that the child lives in a little world, 
whether in a state school or in any private school, wherein it 
sees order, discipline, and self-restraint, exercises a deep influ- 
ence on its whole being. Even in schools from whose curricu- 
lum all religious instruction is eliminated, if the cultivation of 
natural virtues from even purely natural motives be there em- 
phasized, habits of mind and heart are developed that will 
have much to do with the character of the future citizen. 

When, however, this wholesome influence is intensified by 
positive religious instruction that demands the acquisition and 
cultivation of virtues, not merely from natural but from super- 
natural motives also, then a mighty power works in the heart 
that will develop a deep and lasting reverence for all legiti- 
mate authority, and eventually give to the state a faithful 
citizen, a strong upholder of right and order. 

Well do we know that the more faithful a Catholic is to 
his faith and its teaching, the more loyal is he to the laws of 
the land ; the God fearing man must necessarily be the up- 
right, law-abiding citizen. God and Fatherland are the domi- 
nant notes of Catholic teaching. 

In the words of her Divine Founder, she bids her children 
" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." If any one 
bearing the name of Catholic be found a law-breaker or a 
traitor to his country, he is a Catholic but in name. And to the 
same extent that he breaks the laws of the land, in so far does 
he ruthlessly defy the^teachings of her whose name he bears. 

LIBERTY TO EDUCATE AS IS DEEMED BEST. 

As the very fact of our having Catholic schools has at 
times aroused comment, and even ill-feeling, I shall here ad- 
vert to some facts that ought to be taken into consideration. 
One is the constitutional right of Catholics or any body of 



The ''Grievous Schooi^ Question:' 9 

citizens to establish schools, provided such schools be not in- 
compatible with public morality, or not opposed to public 
welfare. 

Citizens have a right to use the public schools; if they 
renounce that right, it is no privilege to allow them to estab- 
lish their own educational institutions. We often hear the 
self-constituted defenders and justifiers of the state system use 
emphatically the term " our schools," and " our public-school 
system." Allow me to remark, that it is an impertinence for 
any individual to refer to 'the public schools as " our " schools, 
to the exclusion of Catholics, or any other members of the 
commonwealth. 

If the state schools do not, in Catholic estimation, afford 
all the facilities necessary for the acquisition of the highest 
moral virtue, we have the liberty of stating this fact and of 
providing other means; for it is also the constitutional right 
of any citizen, whether Catholic or Protestant, Jew or infidel, 
to criticise, condemn, approve or disapprove any institution 
which is the creation of the state and supported by general 
taxation. 

Those outside the church sometimes declare that the Catho- 
lic laity are not in sympathy with the policy of the church in 
the matter of education ; that it is bishops and priests alone 
that are unreservedly insistent on the question. 

Certainly it is true that some Catholic laymen think the 
position of the church on education extreme and unnecessary. 
But to say that the Catholics of America are not substantially 
united on the Catholic Parish School question is to be sadly 
ignorant of the actual state of affairs. Catholics would indeed 
rejoice were they able in conscience to partake of the educa- 
tional advantages provided by the state, for they are taxed to pro- 
vide those advantages, yet they are also eager to support their 
parish school ; and should they desire for their children an 
academical or collegiate education, they are wiUing to bear the 
additional expense incurred thereby. To their credit be it 
said, when the question of a choice between an education with- 



lo The ''Grievous School Question,'' 

out religion and an education with religion is put plainly before 
them, there is no mistaking their position, even though they 
thereby burden themselves with financial sacrifice and self-denial. 

The history of Catholic education shows that the most ear- 
nest advocates of its und}ing, unchangeable principles have 
been laymen, and, were any distinction to be made, the honor 
should go to laymen who are converts to the Catholic faith 
and have had personal experience of the disastrous effects of 
education without religion. 

Were this not the condition of affairs, neither the church 
nor any other organization could force upon the people an 
institution as broad, as far-reaching, and as expensive as the 
parish-school system. 

CATHOLICS NOT ALONE IN OPPOSITION TO EDUCATION WITH- 
OUT RELIGION. 

'-^ The opponents of Catholic v education also say that we are 
practically alone in our opposition to purely secular training 
which eliminates religion. 

If they are at all conversant with current facts and opinions, 
such a contention is false ; for among the most earnest defenders 
of religion in education are found men, non-Catholics, who voice 
their protest in no doubtful terms. I might cite many proofs 
of this, but shall content myself with the words of one who is 
an esteemed minister of religion — one who has been an educa- 
tor for many years, has occupied a chair in one of our largest 
universities, and at present is president of the high-school of 
a city that boasts of nearly a million and a half population. 
I refer to Rev. Robert Ellis Thompson, president of the Cen- 
tral High-School of Philadelphia, who says : 

"As to the sufficiency of religious instruction in church 
and Sunday-school, we reply that one of the first practical 
dangers of society is that the greatest truths that bear on 
human life shall come to be identified in the public mind with 
Sundays, churches, and Sunday-school." 

" We certainly are helping that when we provide that the 



The *' Grievous School Question^ ii 

most aroused activities of a boy's mind shall be divorced from 
those truths, and that the subjects of science, literature, and 
history, with which church and Sunday-school cannot deal, 
shall be taught with a studied absence of reference to ' the 
Divine Intelligence at the heart of things.' " 

"What is this but a lesson in the practical atheism that 
shuts God out of all but certain selected parts of life with 
which the young man may have as little to do as he pleases." 

" What would be the effect upon a child's mind of exclud- 
ing studiously all mention of his earthly father from his work 
and play for five or six days of the week, of treating all his 
belongings and relations without reference to the parents to 
whom he owes them, and permitting such reference only on 
stated times when they are declared in order." 

" But the monstrosity and the mischievousness of such an 
arrangement would be as nothing to the scholastic taboo of 
the living God, to whom the child owes every breath of its 
daily life, who lies about it as a great flood of light and life 
seeking to enter in and possess its spirit, and who as much 
feeds its mind with knowledge and wisdom as its spirit with 
righteousness, and its body with earthly food, in providing 
'food convenient for it'" {Divine Order of Hitman Society, pp. 
189, 190). 

Now, has any Catholic priest or layman spoken more 
emphatically on this subject than has Dr. Thompson ? Again, 
he says : 

" The church, through its clergy, can bring to bear an 
authority in education of a highly ethical kind, which it is not 
easy for laymen to exert. It can supplement or replace paren- 
tal authority more readily ,than a force of lay teachers. And 
it is less likely than, they to be swayed by the intellectual 
fashions of the time, and the place ; less likely to accept as 
its divinity the spirit of the age, because committed to a pre- 
ference for what Jean Paul calls 'the spirit of all the ages.'" 

There is no reason why the state should desire or claim 
the sole right of educating the youth of the country ; to assert 



12 The ''Grievous School Question:' 

that it alone can properly carry on this work is to ignore or 
condemn the splendid history of the past, when the church or 
private energy were the only agencies that looked after the 
education of the masses. 

THE STATE PRACTICALLY IS UNABLE TO EDUCATE ALL THE 

CHILDREN. 

In many parts of this country the state is either unable or 
refuses to carry on alone the work. It is noteworthy that in 
the City of Philadelphia there are not adequate school accom- 
modations for thousands of children who are not Catholic, and 
this is only one instance of the existing state of affairs in 
other sections of the country. With such a shameful truth 
confronting it, the state should welcome the aid of other 
agencies in this great work. 

I may remark here, incidentally, that as the parish schools 
are educating 35,000 children in Philadelphia alone, were these 
schools to be closed 35,000 more would be on the streets. 

The most dangerous of all monopolies is that of education. 
Catholics are not singular in seeing danger in the state arro- 
gating to itself the exclusive work of education. 

Says Dr. Thompson ; 

"Nor do we really escape from the narrowing influence of 
class in setting aside the church's ministry in educational work. 
We only create another class, more certain to be narrow, 
professional, and, in the long run, obstructive to sound 
progress." 

"The teaching profession, in those countries of Europe in 
which the state system has been longest established, constitutes 
a new clergy, not behind any other clergy in dogmatism and 
intolerance, even while it claims to be pervaded by the ' liberal * 
and the ' modern ' spirit. And those who are familiar with the 
teaching class in America, I think, must be aware of the 
tendency to move in the same direction, to regard teachers as 
a distinct body governed by an esprit dc corps of their own, 
and bound to act together against every opposing interest, on 



The ''Grievous School Question" 13 

the assumption that their ideas of the right and the fit are 
coextensive with sound principles of educational policy." 

" We may yet have a new clergy on our hands in America, 
and one whose numbers and unity may make them as inimical 
to the public interests as any priesthood of any church could 
be." 

By judicious encouragement, by helpful sympathy, just 
financial aid, and proper supervision of private schools the 
state can accomplish all that can be achieved by its assuming 
complete control of education ; yet by this mode of procedure 
it would avoid interfering with the parental rights and con- 
scientious belief of her Citizens. 

I might touch here on the widely discussed policy of state 
recognition of Catholic schools. A stranger to our institutions 
and methods of government coming to this country and read- 
ing certain articles bearing on the school question might be- 
lieve, were he a merely superficial observer, that arrayed on 
one side were the followers of the Catholic Church, insignifi- 
cant in numbers and influence, hostile to existing state institu- 
tions, and out of harmony with the progressive spirit of the 
age ; on the other were their opponents, influential in num- 
bers, wealth, and intelligence ; representative of all that is 
best and noblest in this broad land. 

He might also be led to think that Catholics were so un- 
reasonably exacting, so unjustly insistent for recognition, that 
they were striving to force by law their non-Catholic fellow- 
citizens to support Catholic educational institutions. 

CATHOLICS ARE NOT AN UNIMPORTANT MINORITY. 

Yet Catholics are not an unimportant minority : they com- 
prise from ten to fifteen millions of the population, they are 
an integral part of this great country, and history demonstrates 
their loyalty to the land of their birth or adoption, since in 
every crisis of our history their patriotism and fidelity have 
been in evidence. 

They look for no favor, privilege, or charity; they do de- 



14 The " Grievous School Question:' 

mand a constitutional right to have a voice in the affairs of 
government. In seeking some financial recognition for their 
schools they are but asking that their own money, not other 
people's, shall be applied to the education of the children of the 
nation. Who shall dare say they ask more than their right ? 
The state is not the absolute master of all moneys in its treasury. 
It is the custodian only, and justice requires that the moneys 
raised by general taxation be distributed according to the 
reasonable and just wishes of the tax-payers. Our opposition 
to the existing state of affairs proceeds from no sinister, self- 
ish purpose. 

The history of the agitation concerning " denominational " 
schools cannot but make Catholics think that partisan feeling 
and religious prejudice, and not the merits of the question, 
have brought about the present state of public opinion — the 
unwillingness to look calmly and justly on the claims of the 
Catholic minority. 

It is a notorious fact that the so-called "non-sectarian" 
character was given to our state system of education only when 
Catholics asked, in justice, for such consideration as was ac- 
corded to the Protestant sects. 

One who is far from being just, much less partial, to the 
Catholic Church writes : " Many may be surprised to learn that 
the first appeal for a division of the public funds in the coun- 
try was made by a Protestant denomination, and the first sec- 
tarian division actually made was to that body. The other 
Protestant churches, instead of objecting, attempted to obtain 
their share of the public schools fund " {Romanism vs. Public 
School System, p. i). 

TO EXCLUDE RELIGION IS TO PROFESS IRRELIGION. 

A common objection to the appropriation of any money 
from the public treasury to denominational schools is that 
such an act would be a violation of the fundamental law of 
the land, which recognizes no religion or sect. 

" The government's basis is broad, ignoring party and 



The '' Grievous School Question." 15 

creed." Does it ever occur to those who insist on this view- 
that the very policy of excluding religious instruction from 
schools maintained by a general taxation is a de facto class 
legislation in favor of unbelievers and agnostics, and utterly 
opposed to the principles of Christian denominations? 

Unbelief is actually some kind of belief. Consequently, 
may not the mass of Christians justly protest against a system 
which permits any state institutions becoming tacitly an agency 
for the spread of infidelity ? 

It is said that the ofificial machinery required to carry out a 
system which recognizes denominational schools would be so 
complicated as to be practically impossible because of the mul- 
titude of sects in the country which would claim recognition. 
Any agency which will meet the requirements of the state in 
the amount and character of the education demanded ought to 
receive recognition. The difficulties incidental to such recog- 
nition should not rule out of court any just claimant. Does 
the national government refrain from collecting its revenues 
simply because from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a thoroughly disciplined army 
of revenue ofificers must be drafted into service ? Does the 
insignificance of the tribute render the humblest citizen in the 
remotest to^rn of the Union free from the tax-gatherer's de- 
mands? 

THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM CANNOT BE IGNORED. 

"All that is asked is simply the recognition of results secured 
in good educational work. It is a good policy, affirmed over and 
over again in municipal administration, to utilize existing agen- 
cies. A hospital, though it be under denominational control, 
yet has facilities to treat accidents. The city authorizes it 
to run a public ambulance, and pays it for the public service 
it renders. Why not apply the same principle in matters of 
education ? It makes no difference to a municipality what par- 
ticular form of religion is taught, as long as good citizenship 
is cultivated ; and if a corporation of men will give as good 



i6 The ''Grievous School Question," 

an education when tested by examination as the common 
school, why not compensate them for the work done ? 

There is no argument against the system. What is done in 
England, Germany, and Canada should not be impossible in 
the United States. In all these countries denominational 
schools are recognized. No unanswerable argument has ever 
been adduced which destroys the justice of the Catholic claim 
in the matter of education. There is a just solution of the 
difficulty. Catholics are not clamoring for what is unjust or 
unreasonable. 

The Catholic school system cannot be ignored by the state. 
It is a fact, a mighty fact, and one that has come to stay. 
The Catholic Church is contending for a principl e, from which 
she c an never r ecede. "*^^ "" 

Whether recognition come or not, she will continue her 
mission of educating a million children. If the state be sincere 
in the declaration that it looks to the welfare of the whole 
people. Catholic education will yet receive proper consideration. 

It should be recognized, because recognition of the reason- 
able demands of the minority has ever characterized broad 
statesmanship and wise leadership. Fair treatment harmonizes 
and makes loyal the minority of a country. 

The summary dismissal of every Catholic protest and peti- 
tion with wild charges of sinister designs upon the govern- 
ment by the Catholic Church is no answer to a just conten- 
tion, and is not calculated to strengthen in the hearts of 
Catholics loyalty and respect for the laws and Constitution of 
their country. 

May the day soon dawn when America and Americans will 
clearly see what the Catholic Church has done in her parish 
schools for the family and the state by jealously safeguarding 
the moral, religious, and intellectual welfare of the child, and 
when all will recognize the necessity and the permanence of 
the Catholic parish school ! 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




